So cool that a pen expert takes the time to do all these tests detailing a product for his customers As a businessman I think Brian is truly special Bravo Brian PEACE
I use this ink for all of my notes because it behaves so well under a highlighter and doesnt smudge! As a lefty, this is so important because i usually have a line of graphite down the side of my hand when i use pencils, but this ink doesn't at all! And as a student, it's so important to have an ink that behaves well with highlighters, and i have experienced no smearing! Even my gel and rollerball pens smear terribly with my zebra mildliners. I have kokuyo paper, which is suprisingly fountain pen friendly, the ink absorbs easily, but doesn't feather at all!
Yeah, I'm going to try to include more cheap paper tests in my reviews...it's VERY time consuming to scan and color correct the ink review, but writing on the paper in a video is much easier.
I'm glad you like your Sheaffer :) A lot of the 1951 actually hasn't come in stock yet, we've only gotten some of the small notebooks so far. Stock will be a little spotty to start, over the next month or so we should be a lot better off. Good green blacks? That would be Noodler's Zhivago, Private Reserve Avacado, and Diamine Green/Black.
Your comment about BBK fans likelihood to switch to 54th described me to a "t." 54th, a fine TWSBI Mini, and cheap office paper are an unexpectedly nice writing experience.
Thank you Bryan! I received the order and This was in my order. I am very excited about this ink very nice and I was very interested in the history and about the philosophy of Nathan and ended buying five Noodler's pens and about 6 Noodler's inks. I am very happy to discover about the history of writing and and how you guys are sharing that passion grounding writing. I love learning skills and recently started to focus on writing and I am afraid I have bought some very good tools to go in to a higher level. Thanks again for all your comments and videos.
Yeah, Drew normally does our requested drawings, I'm hardly an artist ;) I did indeed write your note with the very pen and ink you see here...maybe even on the same fill! I've been using this ink in this pen for a few weeks though, and enjoying it.
I ordered a Noodler's Konrad and Bernanke Black and you signed and wrote with this ink and drew a snowman. I guess you wrote the note the same day this video went up. The 54th Mass. looked amazing, I loved the shading. Thanks for the drawing, note, and this review.
Thank you for this overview, it was really entertaining and informative. Just as a heads up, Leipziger Schwarz is usually pronounced in German as "L-eye-p-tzeeger Sh-var-tz", with the tz sound pronounced simultaneously.
I just bought a 1.1mm from you today and I will probably be using that more than the one that came on my pen so I am not really worried. I don't think it is affecting the performance at all. Thanks for your help.
Glory is a great movie about the Massachusetts 54th. Starring Denzel Washington Matthew Broderick and Morgan freeman. Many people thought Denzel should have one an Oscar for his role. Alas the movie was snubbed at the oscars.
It was a great film, and was my intro to the story of such brave and admirable men. I later wrote essays on them as a history major, and presented in my classes any chance I could.
Hahaha, I just received my order of 54th Massachusetts and Black Swan in Australian Roses... looks like I did pretty good for my first Noodler inks. ;) Thanks for this review, can't wait to start using mine!
Nathan's out of it at the moment. We have a small shipment on the way, but it won't last long. We should be getting fully restocked soon, though I don't have an exact ETA. Nathan said there's a component to the ink that is backordered to him, so that's holding things up.
It's crazy coming back to an old video of yours after watching like 50 of your newest videos non stop for a few weeks. Not only do you look heavier here, you actually sound heavier too in your voice. Makes me want to get out there and get active and healthy. Glad to see how much you've changed for the better Brian.
Yeah, Brian has definitely slimmed down. He actually has a video a few years back to talk about his weight loss if you're curious: th-cam.com/video/e8V_u8BmflY/w-d-xo.html - Colin
Bought this ink a few weeks back. Do not use this on low quality paper, it looks like a light blue shade. Suffers from bleed through pretty badly as well.
I haven't done a head-to-head comparison against the two. Both will do pretty well, but I would put my money on Black being a little better, that is just an amazing ink.
Ehhh...I don't personally think it's that close to 54th, which is why I didn't mention it in the video. Sheaffer BB is much less blue and more gray, and is a lot less vibrant. I personally don't like the Sheaffer BB very much.
That's the one ink I had in the back of my mind that I didn't mention because I have no experience with it...but I believe it is iron gall just like Rohrer and Klingner Salix. Beyond that, I have no idea.
Twilight is pretty close, yeah. It has more green to it than 54th, I probably could have thrown that one in the mix with the others as a comparable color.
Sliding on and off easily isn't really a problem, but if it's moving side-to-side when installed on the pen, that's not so normal. If you are comfortable writing with it and it's not moving around on the pen as you write you're probably fine, but if it feels like it's not secure, I'd return it.
hmm .. see i havent tried 54th but i have been writing wd sheaffer BB .. and i love it .. ! anyways brian .. wen is the clairefontaine 1951 stock getting refilled ? and one last thing ... suggest me some good black-green inks .. i liked noodler's burma but i jz "saw" its reviews ! looks good .. any suggestions ??
Love the color however it's impossible to write on both sides of the sheet. Most of my pens are medium and so far, I'm not impressed with the results. I'll try a fine nib but I'm skeptical about pen clogging up. It's not easy finding cheap paper that will go with one's choice of pen and ink.
Yeah, that would be more on the nib and paper quality when it comes to bleed-through. It should work fine with a fine nib, as I have used it in my Metropolitan F. Maybe check out Rhodia as well if you want to avoid bleed-through/ghosting. - Colin
The Goulet Pen Company Thanks for the suggestion, I have inked my Fine Metropolitan with 54th Mass. The handwriting comes out medium fine and I'm fine with that however there's still some bleeding through the paper but not as bad as with a medium nib. Will explore other paper/notepads. The reason I've been skeptical is that my pen started skipping when I used CROSS' black ink. It's when I changed inks, I realized that it was the ink and not my pen.
I bought a bottle of this a few months ago from you guys and just now put it in a Lami Safari (F) that I purchased from you guys last week and it's very light, almost like a light gray blue. Has the color evolved over the years or is this a new pen thing? Compared to your tests, mine seems really washed out. This is also my first fountain pen so I'm rather new to this.
Haven't heard of a reformulation, but we can double-check on that! It is a rather dry ink, so I haven't found it to be the dark blue-black in my pens either unless I use a broad nib that really lays down a lot of ink. The third picture on the product page (www.gouletpens.com/products/noodlers-54th-massachusetts-3oz-bottled-ink?variant=11884740509739 ) is more accurate to what I've seen. - Colin
Speaking from experience, Noodler's Walnut is awesome! It doesn't feather or bleed, has great shading, and is very work appropriate. Also, it has nice generous flow.
I got the 54th MA ink. A nice "Union Blue". I have it in two of my dedicated to blue pens. I might load it into a third. MUCH better than Pilot and Parker Blue Black inks.
I recently bought a Lamy Vista (unfortunately not from you because I was already ordering from amazon. I did buy ink and a converter from you though). I noticed that the nib slides on and off easily and if I push it sideways with my finger it will move. Is that normal or is my nib loose? If so, what I can I do about it. Is it even a problem at all? Thanks
I don't know why But the bottle that I purchased The ink seems to spread more than other inks such as noodlers blue and black I am using it in a pilot metropolitan with a fine nib and the ink still spreads a lot on rhodia paper It is being absorbed with no shading Although dry within 5 seconds Any reason why?
Hmmm, that doesn't sound normal. This is usually a really well-behaved ink. I'll check to see if anyone else has had a similar issue with our Customer Care team. It might be worth diluting the ink a bit with water as it's a very saturated ink. - Colin
The Goulet Pen Company I attempted to dilute the ink Although I'd did not do much to fix the issue It may be a bad batch based on what I saw online about how the ink acts
i have read some post arround the internet about this ink about their bottles making 1 big clog, like some kind of gummy clog, others happening on the pen, an i'm kind of worryed about that happpening on my pen, do you have any info?
Noodler's has a Red-Black. Have you ever tried it. Also, I heard there is a Green-Black available but I don't know the brand. Do you know anything about it? Thanks!
+Peter J Puleo Red-Black is basically just a really dark red, with a bit of a brown tone. I've used it and it's a nice ink. Diamine has an ink called Green Black, as does De Atramentis. Noodler's has a REALLY dark green ink called Zhivago. -Brian Goulet
54th Mass is definitely more of a dark dusty blue. Air-Corp Blue-Black is darker and has some strong green undertones. You can compare the 2 with our Swab Shop tool (www.gouletpens.com/ink-comparison-tool). - Colin
I bought this several years ago and absolutely hate it. I’ve tried it in several different pens with several different nibs, and it NEVER looks nice and dark like it does here. It’s so light it’s basically like a turquoise or something. Only ink I’ve ever bought and actually HATE hate.
You can buy this ink on our site (www.gouletpens.com/noodlers-54th-massachusetts-3oz-bottled-fountain-pen-ink/p/N19071). We don't have FedEx shipping to Brazil, but USPS is another option. - Colin
Um, I am pretty sure the 54th Massachusetts was fighting for more that just money. I could be wrong, but I am willing to bet all my money, that they were fighting to end slavery. You do a disservice to them by acting like all they were fighting for was money.
I am sorry that I bought this ink. It is grayish blue and loosing its brightness in time and becomes faint ink. I dont recommend it to anybody. Go with noodlers blue black.
So cool that a pen expert takes the time to do all these tests detailing a product for his customers As a businessman I think Brian is truly special Bravo Brian PEACE
I'm a civil war buff and 54th Mass is a fantastic story. The movie GLORY is a well done tribute to them imo PEACE
I use this ink for all of my notes because it behaves so well under a highlighter and doesnt smudge! As a lefty, this is so important because i usually have a line of graphite down the side of my hand when i use pencils, but this ink doesn't at all! And as a student, it's so important to have an ink that behaves well with highlighters, and i have experienced no smearing! Even my gel and rollerball pens smear terribly with my zebra mildliners. I have kokuyo paper, which is suprisingly fountain pen friendly, the ink absorbs easily, but doesn't feather at all!
Yeah, I'm going to try to include more cheap paper tests in my reviews...it's VERY time consuming to scan and color correct the ink review, but writing on the paper in a video is much easier.
No matter how many fancy inks I have, I always have a nooodlers ink in a pen. They are just amazing as an architect
I'm glad you like your Sheaffer :) A lot of the 1951 actually hasn't come in stock yet, we've only gotten some of the small notebooks so far. Stock will be a little spotty to start, over the next month or so we should be a lot better off. Good green blacks? That would be Noodler's Zhivago, Private Reserve Avacado, and Diamine Green/Black.
Your comment about BBK fans likelihood to switch to 54th described me to a "t." 54th, a fine TWSBI Mini, and cheap office paper are an unexpectedly nice writing experience.
Thank you Bryan! I received the order and This was in my order. I am very excited about this ink very nice and I was very interested in the history and about the philosophy of Nathan and ended buying five Noodler's pens and about 6 Noodler's inks. I am very happy to discover about the history of writing and and how you guys are sharing that passion grounding writing. I love learning skills and recently started to focus on writing and I am afraid I have bought some very good tools to go in to a higher level. Thanks again for all your comments and videos.
That's awesome to hear, enjoy those Noodler's pens & ink! - Colin
Nice ink. Another really lovely Noodler's is Plains of Abraham a limited
edition Canadian version ink that is lovely and dries a pretty shade
Yeah, Drew normally does our requested drawings, I'm hardly an artist ;) I did indeed write your note with the very pen and ink you see here...maybe even on the same fill! I've been using this ink in this pen for a few weeks though, and enjoying it.
A very thorough review. Thank you Brian Goulet. Best wishes to you and yours in these difficult times. :-)
I just ordered the 54th Massachusetts off your site a couple of days ago.
Really excited >:D
I ordered a Noodler's Konrad and Bernanke Black and you signed and wrote with this ink and drew a snowman. I guess you wrote the note the same day this video went up. The 54th Mass. looked amazing, I loved the shading. Thanks for the drawing, note, and this review.
Thank you for this overview, it was really entertaining and informative. Just as a heads up, Leipziger Schwarz is usually pronounced in German as "L-eye-p-tzeeger Sh-var-tz", with the tz sound pronounced simultaneously.
I just bought a 1.1mm from you today and I will probably be using that more than the one that came on my pen so I am not really worried. I don't think it is affecting the performance at all. Thanks for your help.
Where are Nathan’s videos found??
Glory is a great movie about the Massachusetts 54th. Starring Denzel Washington Matthew Broderick and Morgan freeman. Many people thought Denzel should have one an Oscar for his role. Alas the movie was snubbed at the oscars.
He did win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Glory also won 2 additional technical Oscars including for Best Cinematography.
It was a great film, and was my intro to the story of such brave and admirable men. I later wrote essays on them as a history major, and presented in my classes any chance I could.
You're very welcome! I've made quite a few of these videos now and have a pretty good sense of what questions I need to answer before they're asked ;)
Hahaha, I just received my order of 54th Massachusetts and Black Swan in Australian Roses... looks like I did pretty good for my first Noodler inks. ;) Thanks for this review, can't wait to start using mine!
You chose well! -Brian Goulet
i.imgur.com/MXmXifr.jpg [comment]
Yeah, Lydia great taste in colors - these are my favorite two Noodler's. Too bad I have feed problems in the Pilot Met with the 54th
Nathan's out of it at the moment. We have a small shipment on the way, but it won't last long. We should be getting fully restocked soon, though I don't have an exact ETA. Nathan said there's a component to the ink that is backordered to him, so that's holding things up.
It's crazy coming back to an old video of yours after watching like 50 of your newest videos non stop for a few weeks. Not only do you look heavier here, you actually sound heavier too in your voice. Makes me want to get out there and get active and healthy. Glad to see how much you've changed for the better Brian.
Yeah, Brian has definitely slimmed down. He actually has a video a few years back to talk about his weight loss if you're curious: th-cam.com/video/e8V_u8BmflY/w-d-xo.html - Colin
Bought this ink a few weeks back. Do not use this on low quality paper, it looks like a light blue shade. Suffers from bleed through pretty badly as well.
Very appreciative of your comments and guidance. Looking to add the Noodler's 54th Massachusetts ink when my local shoppe opens tomorrow!
The Goulet Pen Company , could you please do a review on the invisible Noodler's ink? Thanks Brian, love your reviews. :)
haha....there are a lot of my videos with just one dislike! Must be a competing retailer or something who doesn't like me...
I haven't done a head-to-head comparison against the two. Both will do pretty well, but I would put my money on Black being a little better, that is just an amazing ink.
Ehhh...I don't personally think it's that close to 54th, which is why I didn't mention it in the video. Sheaffer BB is much less blue and more gray, and is a lot less vibrant. I personally don't like the Sheaffer BB very much.
this is my second ink with aurora black being my first. just ordered it.
Great choice, this is one of the top blue-black inks! - Colin
You'll have to buy it from the US and have it shipped there, that's currently the only place its available, that I know.
I like that it’s called Massachusetts. As a cantabrigian myself, I feel like Massachusetts only gets referenced in terms of Harvard.
That's the one ink I had in the back of my mind that I didn't mention because I have no experience with it...but I believe it is iron gall just like Rohrer and Klingner Salix. Beyond that, I have no idea.
Awesome! Yeah, BBK is a great ink but writes pretty wet. I bet the 54th is handling your office paper a little better than the BBK.
I'm trying to do more of that...cuz not everyone has an endless supply of Rhodia and Clairefontaine laying around like I do ;)
Twilight is pretty close, yeah. It has more green to it than 54th, I probably could have thrown that one in the mix with the others as a comparable color.
When I saw the ink I immediately thought about the Diamine Twilight... Is it just my impression? I feel like it's closer than the Denim (Diamine wise)
Very thorough. Thanks!
sheaffer's grey / blue-black is good as well and almost same color as 54-Mas !
Very helpful - thank you 🙂👍
Sliding on and off easily isn't really a problem, but if it's moving side-to-side when installed on the pen, that's not so normal. If you are comfortable writing with it and it's not moving around on the pen as you write you're probably fine, but if it feels like it's not secure, I'd return it.
I received the 1.1mm italics nib and it fits snugly. :D
Nice! Sounds like your other nib might have just been a bit too wide, you can probably just squeeze the sides to tighten it up.
Would what you said for Bad Belted Kingfisher be the same for Bad Blue Heron?
This is my signature ink
54th Mass is on my short list now. What Red Black and Green Black do you recommend?
hmm .. see i havent tried 54th but i have been writing wd sheaffer BB .. and i love it .. !
anyways brian .. wen is the clairefontaine 1951 stock getting refilled ?
and one last thing ... suggest me some good black-green inks .. i liked noodler's burma but i jz "saw" its reviews ! looks good .. any suggestions ??
Love the color however it's impossible to write on both sides of the sheet. Most of my pens are medium and so far, I'm not impressed with the results. I'll try a fine nib but I'm skeptical about pen clogging up. It's not easy finding cheap paper that will go with one's choice of pen and ink.
Yeah, that would be more on the nib and paper quality when it comes to bleed-through. It should work fine with a fine nib, as I have used it in my Metropolitan F. Maybe check out Rhodia as well if you want to avoid bleed-through/ghosting. - Colin
The Goulet Pen Company Thanks for the suggestion, I have inked my Fine Metropolitan with 54th Mass. The handwriting comes out medium fine and I'm fine with that however there's still some bleeding through the paper but not as bad as with a medium nib. Will explore other paper/notepads. The reason I've been skeptical is that my pen started skipping when I used CROSS' black ink. It's when I changed inks, I realized that it was the ink and not my pen.
Now I would like to see an ink inspired by my old Army Infantry unit, the Buffalo Battalion. Buffalo!
I bought a bottle of this a few months ago from you guys and just now put it in a Lami Safari (F) that I purchased from you guys last week and it's very light, almost like a light gray blue. Has the color evolved over the years or is this a new pen thing? Compared to your tests, mine seems really washed out. This is also my first fountain pen so I'm rather new to this.
Haven't heard of a reformulation, but we can double-check on that! It is a rather dry ink, so I haven't found it to be the dark blue-black in my pens either unless I use a broad nib that really lays down a lot of ink. The third picture on the product page (www.gouletpens.com/products/noodlers-54th-massachusetts-3oz-bottled-ink?variant=11884740509739 ) is more accurate to what I've seen. - Colin
It would be interesting to compare this ink to Montblanc Midnight Blue.
Hi, Can you recommend an ink for the Hobonichi Cousin and something that dries fast so it doesn't smudge. Thank you
Can you please review the Noodler's Walnut? I can't find a video on it, and I would really like to see one. Love your videos, keep it up!
Speaking from experience, Noodler's Walnut is awesome! It doesn't feather or bleed, has great shading, and is very work appropriate. Also, it has nice generous flow.
look up VittaR on TH-cam. her channel has a lot of ink reviews,and I'm pretty sure she did walnut at some point.
I got the 54th MA ink. A nice "Union Blue".
I have it in two of my dedicated to blue pens. I might load it into a third.
MUCH better than Pilot and Parker Blue Black inks.
Come on, have them ship you some, they're still out of stock! :)
I recently bought a Lamy Vista (unfortunately not from you because I was already ordering from amazon. I did buy ink and a converter from you though). I noticed that the nib slides on and off easily and if I push it sideways with my finger it will move. Is that normal or is my nib loose? If so, what I can I do about it. Is it even a problem at all? Thanks
Brian Goulet will you be able to wash out this ink from your pen feed if it dries? Also will the ink dry out on the nib, ect?
I don't know why
But the bottle that I purchased
The ink seems to spread more than other inks such as noodlers blue and black
I am using it in a pilot metropolitan with a fine nib and the ink still spreads a lot on rhodia paper
It is being absorbed with no shading
Although dry within 5 seconds
Any reason why?
Hmmm, that doesn't sound normal. This is usually a really well-behaved ink. I'll check to see if anyone else has had a similar issue with our Customer Care team. It might be worth diluting the ink a bit with water as it's a very saturated ink. - Colin
The Goulet Pen Company
I attempted to dilute the ink
Although I'd did not do much to fix the issue
It may be a bad batch based on what I saw online about how the ink acts
I've also got this issue right now.
I had a similar problem when I bought a sample of this ink. I really liked the colour online, but in use I really didn't like it.
i have read some post arround the internet about this ink about their bottles making 1 big clog, like some kind of gummy clog, others happening on the pen, an i'm kind of worryed about that happpening on my pen, do you have any info?
It’s lies. They just don’t like his beliefs. This is great Ink
Is Noodler's Black works better on cheaper papers than Noodler's 54th Massachusetts?
I use a Canon Vixia HFS-10, it's an awesome camera. Full 1080p footage takes up a TON of space though!
I just ordered 2 of these 😅
I will. Thanks again.
Noodler's has a Red-Black. Have you ever tried it. Also, I heard there is a Green-Black available but I don't know the brand. Do you know anything about it? Thanks!
+Peter J Puleo Red-Black is basically just a really dark red, with a bit of a brown tone. I've used it and it's a nice ink. Diamine has an ink called Green Black, as does De Atramentis. Noodler's has a REALLY dark green ink called Zhivago. -Brian Goulet
Thank you Brian. I'll order some.
is there a way we can get this ink in india?
I spilt a bottle of Noodlers Q’ternity while watching this 😢
Now I just need a made in USA fountain pen... money money, never enough, never enough.
Luckily there's some great US manufacturers these days. Someone like Karas Kustoms or Edison could be an option down the line. - Colin
Is it pigment free?????
Cool. I will do that.
If anyone knows how does this compare to noodler's air-corp blue black
54th Mass is definitely more of a dark dusty blue. Air-Corp Blue-Black is darker and has some strong green undertones. You can compare the 2 with our Swab Shop tool (www.gouletpens.com/ink-comparison-tool). - Colin
Are the noodlers inks waterproof
Some of them are! - Drew
anybody recommend a specific gold nib fp with with this ink? I personally recommend the Parker IM with it for a steel nib just so you all know.
I bought this several years ago and absolutely hate it. I’ve tried it in several different pens with several different nibs, and it NEVER looks nice and dark like it does here. It’s so light it’s basically like a turquoise or something. Only ink I’ve ever bought and actually HATE hate.
hi I'm from Brazil. How do I get this wonderful paint straight from the United States?
You can buy this ink on our site (www.gouletpens.com/noodlers-54th-massachusetts-3oz-bottled-fountain-pen-ink/p/N19071). We don't have FedEx shipping to Brazil, but USPS is another option. - Colin
That is a crazy cool ink, but doesn't flow as smoothly as 54th.
What is the pen you are using there?
The first pen is a Lamy Al-Star and the blue pen used on the less expensive paper is a Pilot Custom 74! -Margaret
Bottle of this stuff exploded in my bag... not fun. Beautiful ink though
How'd that happen?
Won’t load
Um, I am pretty sure the 54th Massachusetts was fighting for more that just money. I could be wrong, but I am willing to bet all my money, that they were fighting to end slavery. You do a disservice to them by acting like all they were fighting for was money.
I am sorry that I bought this ink. It is grayish blue and loosing its brightness in time and becomes faint ink. I dont recommend it to anybody. Go with noodlers blue black.